Monday, August 27, 2018

Movie review - "Beiruit" (2018) ***1/2

Throwback to smart intelligent filmmaking for adults which had pretty much morphed entirely to television. It's from an older script by Tony Gilroy which has fortunately come back to life focusing on a period of history which was a big deal at the time but now isn't very well known... the troubles in Lebanon in the early 1980s just before the Israel Invasion.

I presume Jon Hamm was the one who pushed this through - it's a great role and he's very good as the negotiator who suffers (alcoholic, doomed) and runs around Beiruit trying to get a friend released. I don't feel this is a white saviour movie - it's about Americans trying to rescue an American in Beirut. The Arab characters are sketchy.

I wasn't familiar with much of director Brad Anderson's work but he does a very good job. Loved that 70s/80s feel - the smoking and jackets.

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